MATEC Web of Conferences 232, 04047 (2018) https://doi.org/10.

1051/matecconf/201823204047
EITCE 2018

The overall design and full-aircraft aerodynamic simulation of

the tilting rotor cargo UAV based on variable shaft angle gear
drive
Chia-kan Chang1, Huang Jingjing1, Cong Zhang2, Yue Gao3, Ya-ni Wang4, E Shuang5, Chen Xubing2
1Wuhan Institute of Technology, School of Photoelectric Information and Energy Power, 430000 Wuhan, China
2Wuhan Institute of Technology, School of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, 430000 Wuhan, China
3Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, School of statistics and mathematics, 430000 Wuhan, China
4Hunan University, School of Design, 410082 Changsha,China
5Wuhan Institute of Technology, School of Law and Business, 430000 Wuhan, China

Abstract. Traditional tilt rotor aircraft rely on turning the whole engine nacelle, to accomplish the
transformation between vertical take-off and landing as well as flying. This scheme has a large rotational
inertia and requires a heavy and complex tilting mechanism. the engine jet flow in the process of vertical
take-off and landing directly spray down, and this flow could blow up the sand and stone, let engine suck it
in or hurt people. So this paper designed a new rotated way based on variable shaft Angle gear transmission.
The carrier aircraft design scheme referenced the data come from following software and website. The data
of airfoils come from the software profili and the website Airfoil Investigation Database. The pressure
distribution as well as air flow simulation and calculation is based on XFLR5. The mechanical, appearance
and overall design is based on CATIA. The gear contour design is based on CAXA CAD and the full-
aircraft aerodynamic simulation is based on ANSYS/FLUENT. The engine with this design is fixed, so it
only needs rotate the tilting rotor shaft, and the mechanical structure is relatively simple, which make this
aircraft can play an important role in the future logistics and transportation system.

1 Introduction Because of this UAV's design concept is low speed,

With the progress of electronic technology and aviation
theory, Industrial UAVs began to show a blowout
development, the function of UAVs from folk
entertainment and military spy to integrated with aerial
photography, aerial surveying, short-distance delivery,
reconnaissance and strike, it's becoming mature. But
manned cargo planes and trucks are still the main force
in the field of medium-distance express
transportation.Now the technology of flight control and
UAV remote control is becoming more and more mature,
and the technology of tilt rotor is becoming more and
more perfect,This makes it possible to design the tilting
rotor cargo UAV. It could use smaller venues like
parking lot or small squares to land and take off like a
helicopter, due to it's fixed-wing flying mode,it could
load more weight and fly longer distance than a
helicopter. The aviation community expects the tilt-rotor
aircraft to be the main aircraft for the next 20 years[1].
2 Aerodynamic design of the vehicle
2.1 The design of wing, aileron and wing flap
a
Corresponding author: 1042474404@qq.com
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
branch line, normal configuration propeller cargo
transport plane, therefore the aerofoil selected from
NACA's digit Number aerofoil, CLARK and GA-2
aerofoil(family of aerofoil), finally we analyzed various
data of CLARK X, CLARK V, CLARK Z, CLARK-Y
11.7 %smoothed, CLARK W, CLARK K, CLARK Y,
NACA 4415, NACA 6412, NACA 4418, NACA 4421,
NACA CYH, CLARK YM-15 and NASA/LANGLEY
LS(1)-0413 (GA(W)-2)[2].
In consider of machining difficulty, wing lift-drag
ratio[3] and structural safety, preliminary define the wing
taper ratio of main wing is 1, The ratio of exposed wing's
wingspan and wing chord is 6 and the wing planform is
straight wing or forward-swept wing, In order to
determine which wing planform suit the tilting rotor
cargo UAV batter, we did some aerodynamic analysis
based on XFLR5, used vortex lattice method to analyzed
the aerodynamic characteristic of this two wing planform,
first, The dynamic viscosity of air μ is calculated by
using satland's formula：
μ T 288.15 + B
=( )1.5 (1)
μ0 288.15 T +B
Substitution the reference kinetic viscosity of air
μ0=1.7894×10-5 and reference temperature B=110.4K,
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set the temperature of air T as 293.15K, get when the air
temperature is 20℃(293.15K), dynamic viscosity μ is
17.9×10-5Pa·s. Then calculate Reynolds number,
substituting μ=17.9×10-5Pa·s, density of air ρ refer to
the air density at 20℃ about for 1.205kg/m3, speed v is
111.11m/s, considering that the aircraft should not
occupy too much space, define it's exposed wing's wing
area is 10m2, therefore the wing chord length L is
1.291m, get the wing's Reynolds number Re is
1.058×106, for the sake of analysis, take 1×106 for data
analysis.
Due to the efficiency of NACA 4418, NACA 4421
and NACA CYH is low within the safe Angle of attack
range so they are excluded from analysis range. After
analyse residual aerofoil's lift coefficient at max lift-drag
ratio,Stall angle, Lift coefficient at each Angle of attack
among 0~6°, lift-drag ratio etc. We find that NACA
6412's lift coefficient is out-standing,and lift-drag ratio
in the middle, considering that the aircraft is for intercity
transportation, loadability is more important than
distance, thus we choose NACA6412 as main wing's
aerofoil, because of the nonlinear relationship between
the lift-drag ratio and the Angle of attack, after
considering the lift coefficient and drag ratio, we set the
installation angle as 4°. The left figure is the main wing
use NACA 6412 as it's aerofoil under the conditions
listed above, lift coefficient curves at different angles of
attack, the horizontal coordinate is the Angle of attack
and the vertical coordinate is the lift coefficient. The
right figure is the main wing use NACA 6412 as it's
aerofoil under the conditions listed above, the lift-drag
ratio curve among the 0~6°angle of attack, the horizontal
coordinate is the Angle of attack and the vertical
coordinate is the lift-drag ratio.
Figure 1. Statistical graph of change of the attack Angle and
lift coefficient
Figure 2. Statistical diagram of change of the attack Angle and
lift-drag ratio
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https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201823204047
From the figures, the CL and CL/CD of the straight
wing with NACA6412 aerofoil under the conditions
listed above is 0.732 and 20.43.
Then verify the influence of sweep forward Angle on
lift coefficient and drag ratio under the same conditions
as the aspect ratio and airfoil area, set attack angle as 4°,
sweep forward Angle as 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°, use XFLR5's
vortex lattice method to analyse, get the table below:
Table 1. Statistical table of wing sweep forward Angle, lift
coefficient and lift-drag ratio.
sweep forward Angle CL CL/CD
0° 0.732 20.43
5° 0.731 20.53
10° 0.727 20.68
15° 0.718 21.11
20° 0.706 21.37
It can be seen that under the above conditions, the
increase of forward sweep Angle will increase the lift-
drag ratio and decrease the lift-drag coefficient.
Moreover, with the increase of forward sweep Angle, the
variation range of lift-drag ratio and lift-drag ratio will
increase. However, because the forward sweep wing can
reduce the lift coefficient and greatly increase the torsion
force at the point where the wing connects to the
fuselage in the vertical take-off and landing state,
therefore we use straight wing design.
In the design of flaps, referred the various types of
flap's lift section curve diagram[3]and their polar curve
diagram[3], finally adopt single-slotted flap design
scheme, in terms of design parameters,the chord length
is tentatively fixed at local wing chord length's 25%[3],
set the length of flap as 0.6 wingspan, therefore the
chord length is 0.323m and the length of flap is 2.32m.
Angle of flap defection referred Aircraft design manual[3],
combined in this paper its chord length is 25% of the
wing chord length and combined with the design of the
aircraft wing, set the angle of flap defection as 40°.
According to the statistics of relative area of
ailerons[3], the aileron area of the aircraft is defined as
6% of the wing area, this value is 0.697m2, set the length
of the aileron as 0.4 wingspan as 3.098m, therefore
aileron chord length supposed to be 0.225m.
Some data of the above design are determined by
calculation and reference to other literature, it can be
fine-tuned or modified by wind tunnel test.
2.2 Empennage design
2.1.1 Vertical tail and rudder design
According to the formula：
CVT bw S w
SVT = (2)
LVT
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estimate vertical tail area SVT, set the the length of the
inside cross-section of the fuselage as 1m×1m, set
wingspan bw as 9m, tail capacity of vertical tail CVT
referred some propeller feeder planes[4] and set as 0.08,
tail moment arm of vertical tail LVT set as 4.5m, then get
the value of SVT is 1.856m2. The aspect ratio of the
vertical tail referred the data given in aircraft design
manual[3], set as 1.7, To determine the influence of wing
taper ratio and sweep Angle on the air drag of vertical
tail. The drag coefficient of three vertical tails with
NACA 0011 aerofoil was analyzed by XFLR5's vortex
lattice method, value of aspect ratio A is 1.7 and SVT is
1.6m2, but different wing taper ratio and sweepback
angle on leading edge：
Table 2. The parameters of three vertical tails to be tested.
wing taper sweepback
ratio λ angle on
leading
edge(°)
0.32 0 the change of the center of gravity of the full-aircraft in
0.32 35
1 0
It was found that the drag coefficient of the three tail
fins was the same, for aesthetic reasons, set wing taper
ratio λ as 0.32, sweepback angle on leading edge as 35°,
vertical tail's MAC position of wingspan direction ycA
could be calculate by the formula:
AS 1 + 2λ
ycA =
6 1+ λ
Get the value of ycA=0.37m. Install the horizontal tail
on ycA, make the horizontal tail's 25%MAC and vertical
tail's 25%MAC at the same point, use symmetrical
aerofoil with moderate thickness such as NACA 0011.
The area of the rudder is estimated according to the
statistical curve diagram of the relation between the
relative area of rudder and the total area of wing[3] and
the data of civil jet airliner in geometric data sheet for
vertical tail and rudder[3]. Combine the situation of this
plane, set the relative area of rudder's value as 30%,
0.56m2. Set the rudder span as 1.58m, divided in two
parts, the rudder span of the rudder above the horizontal
tail is 1.31m, he rudder span of the rudder below the
horizontal tail is 0.27m. The chord length of rudder in
both sides is 0.354m.
2.2.2 Horizontal tail and elevator design
In order to make the projection of the full-aircraft
pressure center on the fuselage coincide with the center
of gravity. Therefore, the lifting force of the wing was
analyzed to determine its pressure center, after analyzed
by XFLR5 we get the lift distribution of wing cross
section：
https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201823204047
Figure 3. lift distribution of wing cross-section
The equivalent pressure center can be obtained at
45.3% of the cross section of the wing. In order to keep
the aircraft in static stability, the position of the center of
gravity is set before 25%MAC and coincides with the
center of pressure, so the position of the center of
pressure needs to be adjusted by the horizontal tail. The
selection of horizontal tail's aerofoil will consider the air
drag and the reverse lift it provide. In order to prevent
actual use, there is a pair of propellers for leveling under
the condition of vertical take-off and landing inside the
horizontal tail, in vertical take-off and landing state, the
horizontal tail will slide outward, and the tail rotor is
exposed, in order to facilitate the design of this
mechanism and improve the horizontal tail efficiency in
practical use[4], set the horizontal tail's wing taper ratio as
1, Because the radius of the tangential circle of the
rectangle is larger than that of other parallelogram with
the same area, therefore set the sweep angle of horizontal
tail as 0°. Therefore, the aerodynamic center of full-
aircraft can be determined to confirm the position of the
(3)
center of gravity of full-aircraft.
As this plane is a propeller conveyor, the value of tail
capacity coefficient of horizontal tail VHT refer to each
propeller feeder aircraft[8], provisional set as 1.00,
according formula：
VHTcAS w
S HT = (4)
LHT
To estimated horizontal tail area SHT, full area of
main wings Sw is 11.6m2, MAC length of main wings cA
is 1.291m, tail moment arm LHT estimate according to
fuselage length, in order to save space, the length of the
fuselage is tentatively fixed at 9m, the tail moment arm
is estimated at 50% of the fuselage length, the value is
4.5m. Get the area of horizontal tail SHT as 3.328m2.
According to this data, the aerodynamic center of the
full-aircraft can be analyzed. Since the speed of the wing
is far less than the critical Mach number in the flight
environment, the following formula can be used：
1.05 Clα
Clα = （ ）Clα ,the (5)
β Clα ,the
2π A
Clα ,W = (6)
2
A
2+ ( β 2 + tg 2 Λ1/ 2 ) + 4
K2
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MATEC Web of Conferences 232, 04047 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201823204047
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Clα dε 2
K= (7) = × 57.3CLαWB (17)
2π dα π Aq

β = 1− M 2 (8) S H 1 − dε qH
CLα = CLαWB + CLα H ( ) (18)
S dα q
t
Cla ,the = 6.28 + 4.7( )(1 + 0.00375τ ) (9)
c b2
Aq = (19)
S
Estimate the slope of lift curve of main wing, get the
value of trailing edge angle τ in Airfoil Investigation Set XacW as 25%MAC, valued 0.323, bf and hf set as
Database as 21.3°, the value of t/c is 0.12. The value of 1.554m and 1.30m, cA valued 1.291m, S valued 10m2,
tg[(1/2)τ] is calculated as 0.188, set the value of Re as substitute CLα,WB=4.222 into formula(14)and get the
106, the value of modified empirical factor (Clα/Clα,the) correction Δf1Xac’s value as -0.086lfn, aerodynamic
could be find from the graph[3], get the value of modified center of wing-body combination Xac valued 0.323-
empirical factor (Clα/Clα,the)=0.7, theoretical slope of lift 0.086lfn. Because of the plane's horizontal tail is installed
curve of aerofoil Clα,the is calculated according to at the middle of the vertical tail, so the value of qHT/q[5]
formula(9) as 6.88, substitute the mach number of is 0.95, wingspan b=9m, combine the known conditions
111.11m/s valued 0.33 into formula(8)and get the value and simultaneous formula(17)(18)(19)(16), get the value
of β=0.94, substitute it into formula(5)and get the value of full-plane’s aerodynamic center XF as
of lift curve of aerofoil Clα=5.40, substitute it into C Lα H l H
formula(7)and get the value of K=0.86, substitute it into 4.5 + 0.323 − 0.086l fn + Δ PX ac
5.018C Lα H + 4.31
formula(6)and combined with the data of the wing, get .
the value of wing's slope of lift curve CLα,W=4.257. The The following formula is used to modify the effect of
following formulas could be used： the propeller on the aerodynamic center：

dF d X ac D 2B l
KWF = 1 + 0.025 − 0.25( F ) 2 (10) ΔP = −0.05 P P P (20)
b b cA ScA CLαWB

CLα ,WB = KWF CLα ,W (11) Diameter of propeller DP set as 7m, propeller Blade
Number BP set as 3, lP set as 0.923m, The influence of
4 S f ,max the propeller on the aerodynamic center can be obtained
dF = (12) as -0.249, set the aspect ratio of the horizontal tail as 3.4,
π then it can be calculated according to the known
conditions that lH=0.989m, lfn=3.317m.
To calculate the value of Wing-body interference
The formula can be obtained after simplification:
factor KWF and slope of lift curve of wing-body
combination CLα,WB, set the value of cross section area of CLα H
the most wide part of fuselage Sf,max as 2.020m2, X F = 4.45 -0.284 (21)
substitute it into formula(12)and get the value of 5.018CLα H + 4.31
dF=1.604. Substitute the value of wingspan b=9m, into
Adopt NACA 0013 as the aerofoil of horizontal tail
formula(10) and get the value of KWF=0.992, substitute it
to verify the feasibility of the design, using the
into formula(11)and combined with the calculated slope
formula(5)(6)(7)(8)(9), and use the same method with
of the lift curve of the wing, get the value of
calculating the slope of lift curve of wing to calculate the
CLα,WB=4.222. full-plane’s aerodynamic center XF could
slope of lift curve of horizontal tail, It is found that the
be calculated by the following formulas：
aerodynamic center of full-aircraft always before the
X ac X Δf X Δf X pressure center, the aerodynamic center located at
（ )WB = ( ac ) + 1 ac + 2 ac (13) 32%MAC but the pressure center located at 45%MAC,
cA cA cA cA if the center of pressure coincides with the center of
gravity, in order to ensure flight safety, the after limit of
Δf1 X ac 1.8 b f h f l fn cg should be at the front of the aerodynamic center for at
=− (14)
cA CLαWB Sc A lest 3%MAC[5], therefore, the horizontal tail is required
to provide reverse lift to adjust the position of pressure
Δf 2 X ac 0.273 b f cg (b − b f ) center.The density of air ρ set as 1.205kg/m3, velocity v
= tan Λ1/ 4 (15) is 111.11m/s, aspect ratio Aw is 3.4, chord length of
cA 1 + λ c A 2 (b + 2.15b f )
horizontal tail is 0.989m, attack angle set as 0°, wing
planform set as straight wing. Use XFLR5’s vortex
qHT CLα H S H lH dε lattice method to analyse the horizontal tail with high
XF = Xac + (1 − ) + ΔPX ac (16)
q CLα Sc A dα lift-drag ratio aerofoil such as NACA 65-410, NACA
0010-34 a=0.8 c(li)=0.2, NACA 63-412, NACA 63(2)-
615, NACA 65(1)-412, NACA 2.5411,
NASA/LANGLEY LS(1)-0413 (GA(W)-2), NACA

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EITCE 2018

4415, NACA 63A210, CLARK K[2] etc. The parameter mair

of horizontal tail has enumerated above, analyse the lift
force and liftdrag ratio of the horizontal tail with
different aerofoil and it is calculated that if the horizontal
tail’s aerofoil is NACA 0013, the lift curve slope is
3.532, taking the front 3%MAC of the aerodynamic
center as the afterward limit of center of gravity, the
reverse lift needs to be provided more than 2930.391N,
which is a reference. Considering the lift-drag ratio of
the horizontal tail and the reasonable range of lift, use
horizontal tail with reverse NACA 63-412 aerofoil to
calculate, it is known that the aerodynamic center of full-
aircraft is in 32%MAC, and the pressure center is located
in the 18%MAC. When the center of gravity is designed
near the pressure center, the center of gravity is about
14%MAC before the aerodynamic center, satisfies the
design requirements.
After check the Statistical chart of relative area of
elevator[3] the area of the elevator is estimated to be 32%
of the area of the horizontal tail, 0.918m2, set the span of
the elevator as 3m, then the length of the elevator is
0.306m.
The afterward limit of center of gravity is located at
the 3%MAC front of the aerodynamic center of full-
aircraft, which is 29%MAC. The forward limit of center
of gravity requires further aerodynamic simulation of the
full-aircraft before it can be determined.
Sintake = (22)
vintake ρintake
vintake = vv0 (23)
The specific heat ratio γ is calculated as 1.40
according to the basic relationship of one-dimensional
steady adiabatic flow, when the Mach number is 0.32,
v
the value of ρintake is 1.145kg/m3, when the value of is
0.5, get the value of vintake as 55.556m/s, find the engine
air flow mair of PT6A-15AG is 2.8kg/s, substitute it into
formula(22), the section area of air inlet is calculated as
0.044m2.
In the preliminary design of the shape of inlet lip,
single-spoon intake port[6] design is adopted, the lip
crown is thinner because of the different airflow status in
different area, the keel of lip is thicker and the lateral lip
is in a medium thickness[7],The contraction ratio of the
lip crown is 25%, the lateral lip is 28%, the keel of lip is
30%. The ratio of the throat area and the inlet area Ai/Am
is 52.2%. The specific parameters are shown in the
diagram：

2.3 Fuselage design

As the plane is a logistics UAV, the cross section of the
inner warehouse is set to a square of 1m2, Since there is
no pressurize in the body, the wall thickness set as 5cm[4],
the length / diameter ratio of the front and rear fuselage
is set to 2 and 3.0[4], according to fuselage diameter and Figure 4. Lip parameters of the air inlet
the length of the front and rear fuselage set as 2.482m
and 3.724m. The tail contraction angle βF and rear body Define formula：
upswept angle ψ are both 12 degrees. The shape of the
nose is obtained with parabolic rotation. RLE
K1 = (24)
Ri

3 Design of mechanical structural of key RLE Ai

parts of aircraft and engine nacelle = K1 (25)
Rm Am

3.1 Design of tilt rotor mechanical structure and Rm A

engine nacelle = K 2 + K 3 ( i )3 (26)
L Am

3.1.1 Design of engine inlet port and engine nacelle Ri 1

shape
The engine is designed to adopt a turboprop engine with
a variable pitch propeller, because the design needs to
ensure that the aircraft can rise vertically at the speed of
10m/s at the maximum load, the power of a single
engine must be more than 275kW, and the engine intake
is designed by the standard of PT6A-15AG turboprop
engine of Pratt & Whitney of Canada. The tilt system of
the rotor is designed to use the tilting mechanism based
on the turbine worm. The area of the air inlet could be
calculated according following formulas:
= (27)
Li K 4 ( K1 − 1)
Calculated K1 of top of lip, lateral lip and lip ridge
are respectively 1.14,1.16, and 1.18. The value of K2 is
set as 0.2, the value of K3 is set as 12.5, and the value of
K4 is set as 1.5[8]. Due to the design of variable shaft
angle gear drive mode, the whole engine nacelle is not
required to be tilted. Therefore, the angle of attack of the
air inlet caused by the change of tilt angle during engine
nacelle tilt is not considered. Therefore, the preliminary
design of the lip of the inlet can be obtained directly. The

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details need further wind tunnel test to complete the
optimization. This article will not continue to go deep.
According to the length and diameter of the engine,
as well as the volume set aside for the tilting mechanism
and the reduction gear box, the width of the engine
nacelle is set as 500mm, and the height is set as 800mm,
and the length is set as 2600mm. Refer to the air inlet
shape design of planes use PT6A as it’s engine like King
Air C90, The original design of the air inlet width is
400mm, the side lip is two semicircle, and the inlet
height is calculated to be 117.394mm. Taking the
volume of the tilting mechanism into account, a
preliminary design plan for the nacelle configuration of
the engine can be obtained. The red part is covered with
soft skin. This part can be folded when the rotor is tilted,
won’t affect the normal tilt of the rotor, and will be
strained in the fixed wing flight mode. The appearance,
as shown in diagram 6, does not affect the aerodynamic
performance. As the specific models of the reduction
gear box and the type of stepper motor used to drive the
gearbox are not determined, the specific appearance may
be modified on this design. The following figures is the
design of the engine nacelle and the structure beneath the
skin：
Figure 5. engine nacelle
Figure 6. structure under the soft skin
Figure 7. engine nacelle in Vertical take-off and landing mode
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3.1.2 the design of Mechanical structure used in
rotor tilting
The rotor tilting mechanism use the transmission with
variable shaft angle mode based on bevel gear group,
using a set of bevel gear as the core of the mechanism,
The specific design is shown in the following figures:
Figure 8. State of the tilting mechanism of the fixed wing
mode
Figure 9. State of the Figure 10.installation(vertical
tilting mechanism of take-off and landing mode)
vertical take-off and
landing mode
The A is the gear and shaft connecting the engine
deceleration gear group H; B is a shaft sleeve, within a
rotating shaft C connected with the gear J and gear D
with the rotor connect with it. B is controlled by the
tilting gear group F, and it can achieve the mutual
conversion between Figure 7 and figure 8. Gear D and
the rotating shaft connected to it deal with power output,
connecting to the propeller; E is the connecting
mechanism between the tilting mechanism and the
engine nacelle shell; G is the gear group connecting the
deceleration gear box I which connect large torque
stepper motor which provide the power needed for tilting
and tilting gear group F.
3.2 Internal structure design of empennage
Due to the rotor use variable pitch propeller which do
not have flapping motion, a set of propellers is needed to
assist the balance in the empennage, to ensure the
stability of the aircraft in the state of vertical take-off and
landing. In order to prevent the effect of the tail rotor
propeller on the overall aerodynamic performance, the
empennage propeller is installed inside the empennage,
and will be used only in the vertical take-off and landing
state. The specific design scheme is shown in the
following figures:
MATEC Web of Conferences 232, 04047 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201823204047
EITCE 2018

landing gear layout, The UAV landing gear load

standard is designed according to the standard of general
purpose aeroplane, need to make sure the landing gear
can handle 3g load[9], this paper designed a tricycle
landing gear for this UAV, the installation position in a
side view is shown in the figure:

Figure 11. empennage structure in state of vertical take-off and

landing mode

Figure 13. The installation position of the landing gear in a

side view

Specific mechanical structure of the front and rear

landing gear：

Figure 12. core structure of the internal empennage

K is a shaft sleeve, contain a driving shaft P that Figure 14. Structure of rear landing gear
drives the propeller of the empennage; L is a rotating
shaft with a thread, which is connected to a double out
shaft motor based on two turbine worm self-locking
mechanisms and controls the flex movement of
horizontal empennage; M are five smooth shafts with the
function of fixing and could embed signal lines in them.
N contains the brushless electric motor which provide
power for two empennage propellers and it’s
transmission shaft. O is a bevel gear group that drives
the P shaft; Q is another bevel gear group, which is used
to transfer the power of P shaft to the empennage
propeller. This device can ensure that two rotor
propellers have the opposite rotation direction and the
same rotation speed, and compare the scheme of one
motor driving a propeller, this scheme can avoid the
situation that one of the motor failures leading to an
accident of the aircraft thus improve its reliability. Figure 15. Mechanical structure of front landing gear

X is the landing-gear retraction jack based on electric

3.3 Design of take-off and landing system drive pusher. V is the down lock of landing gear, which
is to prevent the impact and pressure to X when plane is
As the aircraft is a vertical take-off and landing aircraft,
landing or on the ground. W is the gear uplock, which
it does not consider the situation of sliding take-off and
locks automatically when the landing gear is closed.
landing. In order to reduce the air drag in the cruise state,
After being locked, X can cut off the power to reduce the
so it is proposed to use the retractable wheeled landing
working time of X and increase its service life. Y is the
gear or retractable skid landing gear, for the convenience
main body and buffer of the landing gear, using oleo-
of ground staff to move the aircraft, so we intends to use
pneumatic buffer. Z is a universal shaft that can be
the wheel type landing gear based on a universal wheel
locked physically by manual. It allows the ground staff
with a rotating shaft which can be locked.
to move the aircraft after landing. AA is the switching
Because there is no need to take the situation of take-
mechanism of landing gear door, which is composed of a
off and landing into account, so we ignored the situation
motor with a worm gear deceleration and a set of gear
like aircraft tail rubbing ground when defining the
groups that control the door opening and closing, so that

7
MATEC Web of Conferences 232, 04047 (2018)
EITCE 2018
the hatch door can be rotated along the axis shown in the
red line.
V and W are hook ring locks, and the internal
structure is shown in the following diagrams：
The four diagrams are structures of the uplock in
unlocking condition, the uplock in locking condition, the
downlock in locking condition and the downlock in
unlocking condition. The AB is the side plate, the AC is
the actuating jack, AD is the locking key, AE is the lock
hook, AF is the mechanical spring, AG is the stopping
platform, AH is the piston rod and AI is a roller.
4 Aerodynamics simulation of full-
aircraft
Based on the current aerodynamic shape design, we
import it into Designmodeler module and set a Enclosure
for it as it’s simulated wind-tunnel wall：
Figure 16. plane and the Enclosure
Then import it into Mesh module to divide the grid
and name the simulated wind tunnel wall as ‘inlet’, then
update it and import it into ANSYS/FLUENT, use the
density-based solver with SST k-moega viscous model,
set the boundary conditions of inlet as Pressure Far-Filed,
under the condition of ideal gas, the flow is taken in the
increasing x direction (the direction right to the nose) at
the speed of 0.3M, and the aerodynamic simulation is
carried out at the atmospheric pressure of the 95200pa
(the atmospheric pressure at the altitude of 500m), plus,
the attack angle of the aircraft is 0 degree,
8
https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201823204047
Figure 17. Partial incoming flow parameters
After setting the reference-values according to the
above parameters, we set two monitors to draw the lift
coefficient curve and the drag coefficient curve in the
simulation calculation.
After 1667 iterations, the monitoring curves of lift
coefficient and drag coefficient were obtained：
Figure 18. Drag coefficient curve
Figure 19. lift coefficient curve
It can be seen that after about 800 iterations, the lift
coefficient curve and the drag coefficient curve have
been basically stable. Taking the average of the last 200
sets of data, the full-aircraft lift coefficient is 0.978, the
full-aircraft drag coefficient is 0.177, and the full-aircraft
lift-drag ratio can reach 5.53. The value of thrust-weight
ratio in horizontal flight is 0.181, compared to traditional
tilting rotor aircraft like MV22, it’s thrust-weight ratio in
horizontal flight is about 0.33[10], the aerodynamic
efficiency of this design is MV22’s 182.5%. Some
corners of the design can be further smoothed, it may
could reduce drag coefficient, thus promote lift-drag
ratio.
5 Conclusion
In this article, a tilting rotor cargo UAV based on
variable shaft Angle gear drive is roughly designed. The
design can reduce the weight of the rotor tilting
mechanism thus reduce the weight of the aircraft. And
MATEC Web of Conferences 232, 04047 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201823204047
EITCE 2018

the transmission mechanism is simple, plus the failure

ratio is lower than the design of tilting the whole engine
nacelle. In which the engine exhaust gas always sprayed
backwards in this design, so this aircraft has better site
adaptability and it’s more beneficial to the safety of the
ground staff. The design of this paper is quite theoretical.
It covers only the design of its aerodynamic shape, the
design of the key parts and its mechanical structure,
Some details need to be further optimized and improved.
However, this paper provided a preliminary design
scheme of an advanced tilt rotor aircraft, which could
provide certain reference significance.

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